The Last of Us 2 had a different ending during its development

Ellie was going to end the Naughty Dog game a little differently than she did at the end on the PS4. (Beware spoilers if you haven’t played it yet)

The Last of Us Part 2, the latest game to hit the market by Naughty Dog exclusively for PlayStation 4, was going to have a different ending. Although his story has different tones commented on from many perspectives by the players, this one – almost – we would have known it in a somewhat different way.

As revealed by its writers, Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross, that story in the game was going to be slightly different from where it left Ellie. Speaking on the Script Apart podcast, Gross explained that originally the ending scene of Ellie searching the abandoned farm also included a snippet that differed from the final result.

Apparently, in this fragment, Ellie found a toy of Dina’s baby. It was at that moment that Ellie would take it in her hand and put it in her backpack just before going outside. While this might seem like a more positive tone for the finale at first, it was much more definitive and clashed with Naughty Dog’s tone.

What the studio really wanted was to leave a much more open ending and thus make it run free for the players to interpret. In the end, they chose to scrap this ending for The Last of Us Part 2, which led to it not being included. Despite this, and against all odds – although it usually happens – there are those who are still unhappy with the entire end of the game.

Perhaps, and only perhaps, something similar could happen with the tone that may be included in the future and supposedly The Last of Us 3. Because it is another of the topics discussed this week, its story is outlined but (yet) it is not being worked on.

According to Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us film failed because it was too focused on action, although this second part has been the first game with more than 300 GOTY or Game of the Year awards.